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Sheffield Philharmonic Chorus in finals of national carol competition

Sheffield Philharmonic Chorus have been shortlisted in the top ten for a national carol competition.

Sunday, 15th December 2019, 10:00 am

Updated Wednesday, 18th December 2019, 12:40 pm

Run by Making Music UK and Classic FM, the festive competition invited performers to submit a performance to be played on the popular classical radio. With more than 5.7 million listeners tuning in every week, Classic FM is the biggest classical music radio station in the world.

The competition is part of Classic FM’s 11-year partnership with Making Music UK, which regularly offers member groups the chance to submit recordings for live broadcast.

The shortlisted carols have been broadcast in the lead-up to the festive season on the station’s Drive programme. The winning five were then being played all this week on the show.

Resident chorus at Sheffield City Hall, the Sheffield Philharmonic Chorus, won through to the top 10 for the competition.

The Philharmonic Chorus teamed up with Black Dyke Band for a beautiful rendition of O Holy Night.

The duo often perform this work at their annual Christmas concerts at Sheffield City Hall, with this year’s event, which took place on December 14, proving no different.

The carol, composed by Adolphe Adam in 1847, reflects how the birth of Jesus has impacted on humanity.

Many popular artists who have covered the carol include Nat King Cole in 1960, Patti LaBelle (1990), Mariah Carey (1994), Josh Groban (2002) and Idina Menzel this year.

During the first three weeks of December, Classic FM listeners were also invited to vote for their favourite-ever Christmas carol – and O Holy Night has held the top spot since 2016.

This year’s results will be revealed on Christmas Day between 1pm and 3pm.

Link to article in Sheffield Telegraph

REVIEW: Sheffield’s Christmas concert tradition

SHEFFIELD PHILHARMONIC CHORUS/ BLACK DYKE BAND, CITY HALL

Review by Philip Andrews Sheffield Telegraph Tuesday, 17th December 2019, 5:32 pm

Christmas music may have been playing in your supermarket since September but the season in Sheffield doesn’t really get under way until the City Hall’s annual Christmas concert.

To get us in festive mood this year, Phil director Darius Battiwalla put together an eclectic programme of familiar carols, a couple of gems from the rich store of Sheffield carols and a brand new piece written to raise money to help the homeless. He even arranged the curtain raiser – the familiar O Come, O Come Emmanual – for the trio of forces which combined so well throughout this concert – choir, brass band and the City Hall’s mighty organ, played here by Neil Taylor.

Professor Nicholas Childs, conductor of Black Dyke Band

Black Dyke’s offerings, under their musical director Nicholas Childs, ranged from the ever-popular Winter Wonderland, via a couple of familiar medleys to A Christmas Carol, by the talented young composer Matt Eden, who specialises in new pieces for brass band.

Paul Fincham’s affecting new carol Ring the Bells was commissioned a couple of years ago by the London Philharmonic Choir to raise awareness of homelessness, and delicately handled here by their Sheffield namesakes in what may have been its first performance in the city. Let’s hope it is not the last, as all the royalties from the piece are donated to the homeless charity, Crisis.

The only downside to what has now become an eagerly-anticipated Sheffield Christmas tradition was the disappointing audience figure for the evening performance, which had been brought forward this year to a tea-time start.

Link to the review in Sheffield Telegraph online

Chorus to present Bochum gift to Lord Mayor

Sheffield Telegraph, Thursday 2 November 2019

Sheffield Philharmonic Chorus is thrilled to be able to pass on a gift from the people of Bochum to the city of Sheffield. A large framed photograph of Bochum’s City Hall will be presented to Lord Mayor Tony Dowling at the choir’s next concert on Saturday 9 November 2019.

‘We were given the picture during our trip to sing with Bochum’s City choir in their brand new concert hall, when we presented greetings from Sheffield’s Lord Mayor.’ explained Chorus Chair Paul Henstridge, ‘Bochum takes the twinning arrangement with Sheffield very seriously and even helped to pay for our trip. We are delighted that our Lord Mayor and Lady Mayoress are able to receive the picture on behalf of the city – and that they will stay to hear us sing.’

Chorus Chair with Deputy Mayor of Bochum

Members of the Chorus visited Sheffield’s twin town Bochum in February to sing Handel’s Messiah with the Philharmonischer Chor Bochum, accompanied by the Bochumer Symphoniker conducted by John Lidfors. Many stayed with colleagues from the Bochum choir, re-kindling friendships made on a previous trip. They were treated to trips to Bonn and Essen, as well as a number of hostelries and a big party.

But the main event was Messiah in the award-winning concert hall funded by over 20,000 donors and completed following 15 years of fundraising. ‘We were bowled over by the concert hall, an absolutely fantastic state-of-the-art building already listed as one of the top ten concert halls in Germany’ said Graham Dawson, who organised the trip. ‘We’ve arranged a return trip of course – they are joining us to sing Messiah with the Black Dyke Band in the Victoria Hall on 20 April 2020’

Chorus members visited France last year, singing with L’ensemble Vocal de Périgueux to celebrate the end of WW1. Keen to maintain strong links with their French and German colleagues, the Chorus have invited both choirs to experience the brass version of Messiah for the first time.

‘We are thrilled that the Mayor of Bochum acknowledged the importance of our joint venture by presenting us with this picture’ said Paul, ‘and equally thrilled to be presenting it to Sheffield’s Lord Mayor at our concert in November’

The short After Hours session follows the Halle concert in the main hall and features a programme from Scandinavia and the Baltic. ‘Audiences will be familiar with the Norwegian Romantic composer Edvard Grieg, but may not be with his countryman Ola Gjeilo, born in 1978, or Eric Ešenvalds, born in Latvia a year earlier.’ said Music Director Darius Battiwalla, ‘We’ve chosen a programme of particularly beautiful pieces to sing unaccompanied which will suit the amazing acoustic of the City Hall ballroom.’

Join the Lord Mayor to hear the choir ‘up close and personal’ on Saturday 9^th November at 9.15pm. The free concert ends at 10pm; tickets from the City Hall Box Office, through the hotline 0114 2 789 789, or online via the website.

Lord Mayor to receive Bochum gift

Chorus presents gift from Bochum to city

‘We were given the picture during our trip to sing with Bochum’s City choir in their brand new concert hall.’ explained Chorus Chair Paul Henstridge, ‘We are delighted that our Lord Mayor and Lady Mayoress are able to receive the picture on behalf of the city – and that they will stay to hear us sing.’

Chorus feature on Black Dyke Band CD

22 October 2019

The Chorus met up with the world-famous Black Dyke Band in a Sheffield church last night, to record John Rutter’s Gloria for the band’s forthcoming CD. ‘We’re getting used to recording with this wonderful brass band’ said Chorus Chair Paul Henstridge, ‘We joined Halifax Choral Society and the Yorkshire Youth Choir to record Philip Wilby’s new oratorio The Holy Face with them in 2015, and the band’s last CD featured Paul Mealor’s Paradise, a piece that sandwiches beautiful choral sections around a fiendishly difficult brass-only section in the middle.’

The Chorus with Black Dyke Band in St Oswald’s Church Sheffield

The recording was made in the atmospheric surroundings of a Sheffield church – St Peter’s and St Oswald’s on Bannerdale Road. ‘We chose St Oswald’s because they have hosted a recording session with us before and looked after us well on that occasion.’ said Administrator Anne Adams. ‘That was quite some years ago, when we recorded one of those special ‘in-between’ chunk for Songs of Praise, with atmospheric lighting and dry ice swirling around. No filming this time of course, and everything went well, thanks to everyone at St Oswald’s’

John Rutter’s Gloria was composed in 1974 for choir, brass, percussion and organ, with an alternative version for choir and orchestra. Described as “exalted, devotional and jubilant”, it was Rutter’s first commission from the US. Structured in three movements and based on the Gloria from the Latin mass, it was always intended as a concert piece.

The Gloria will feature on the Black Dyke Band’s next CD. For more information about Black Dyke Gold VII featuring Paradise, or The Holy Face, see Buy Our Recordings and Books.

Holy Face – ‘perfect clarity’

Review: Philip Andrews, Sheffield Telegraph, 12 June 2019

It is a sign of the regard in which the Philharmonic Chorus is held that they are invited to contribute to the first performances of ambitious new works like Philip Wilby’s oratorio for organ, brass band and massed voices, The Holy Face.

It shares some of its Biblical text with Handel’s Messiah, so comparisons are hard to avoid. Handel’s approach is more varied, Wilby’s (in this version) brassier.

That is because the Phil shared the stage with familiar partners, the Black Dyke Band, as well as the Halifax Choral Society, by whom the piece was commissioned.

Getting the balance right was therefore important, but the choirs, under conductor Darius Battiwalla, made their generally delicate contributions with perfect clarity, and were never overpowered by instrumentalists who played their part with admirable restraint.

They and the composer, who was in the audience, rightly received warm applause.

It was another contemporary British composer, Paul Mealor (best known for the Military Wives’ Wherever You Are), who provided the afternoon’s other main work, Paradise.

This was another composition for band and choir set to a Biblical text and it, too, worked well.

The choir book-ended the piece with the sort of peaceful, ethereal sounds you would hope to find in Paradise, while the band was let loose in the central section with a less reverent outburst of jazz, which some of us would also welcome should we ever get there.

The programme began with Wilby’s Cinema, a new work for brass band and organ, with Battiwalla now on the keyboard, while the band was conducted by Nicholas Childs.

It was apparently inspired by the early days of the cinema, although that was rarely obvious, and neither is organ and brass band a particularly felicitous combination.

Philip Andrews

Link to the review on the Sheffield Telegraph website (scroll down once there)

Composer to hear Black Dyke Band and massed voices perform his new work

8 June 2019

Sheffield Philharmonic Chorus are thrilled that the composer Philip Wilby will be in attendance at the forthcoming concert premiere of the brass band version of his oratorio The Holy Face at the City Hall at 3pm on Sunday 9 June 2019. The Chorus will be joined by the Black Dyke Band, Halifax Choral Society, the Yorkshire Youth Choir and four great soloists for this very special concert.

‘The Holy Face was written for massed voices, organ and either brass band or orchestra.’ said Chorus Chairman Paul Henstridge. ‘We are really looking forward to singing this musical retelling of the life of St John with our friends the Halifax Choral Society, who commissioned it to celebrate their 200th Anniversary in 2017.’

‘We are really committed to making classical music accessible to young people’ said Chorus administrator Anne Adams ‘So we have sent out a really generous ticket offer to all the brass training bands, our Sheffield-based youth orchestras, all the secondary schools and the Sheffield Music Hub and Music Academy. Seven members of the Black Dyke Band have agreed to meet Sheffield’s young brass players after the concert – how fantastic is that!’

The brass version of The Holy Face was recorded in June 2017, and the orchestral premiere held in Halifax later that year. The CD is available from Halifax Choral Society’s website.

Also on the programme is Paradise, a fabulous new work by Welsh-born composer Paul Mealor, who sprang to fame in 2011 when his Ubi Caritas was featured at the wedding of the Duke & Duchess of Cambridge. Paradise is a beautiful piece for brass band and voices which the chorus recorded in January with the world-famous Black Dyke Band in Sheffield’s own City Hall. The recording has been published as part of the Black Dyke Gold series – and composer Paul Mealor is thrilled with it. ‘I am very impressed.’ said Paul on hearing the CD. ‘It’s a fantastic recording of the work.’

The piece features two elements sung by the Chorus alongside the Black Dyke Band, sandwiching a central section of fiendish difficulty showcasing the band’s incredible virtuosity. The Chorus first sang Paradise in January at the Brass Band Festival held each year at the Royal Northern School of Music in Manchester, a performance that was broadcast on BBC Radio 3.

The concert begins with another work by Philip Wilby, his organ concerto Cinema, written for organ and brass band, and featuring Chorus Music Director and Leeds City Organist Darius Battiwalla on the magnificent City Hall organ.

Tickets are available from the City Hall box office.

Bach’s compendium – Sheffield Philharmonic Chorus /Royal Northern Sinfonia, City Hall

Philip Andrews, Sheffield Telegraph, Tuesday 7 April 2019

‘Bach put his Mass in B Minor together at the end of his life from pieces he had prepared earlier.

If it was a belated CV of his best work intended to impress Him upstairs, it would surely have earned him the job as God’s in-house composer when his time came.

It is not simply a setting of the Latin mass but a compendium of musical styles and moods – often lively and even jolly – designed to show off the talents of its various performers, who here all responded splendidly.

The focus shifts from choir to soloists to orchestra to single instrumentalists, and all were in impressive form.

The heavy lifting is done by the choir, and our own Philharmonic Chorus was meticulously prepared by Music Director Darius Battiwalla. They responded sharply and sensitively on the night to the admirably clear and precise guidance of conductor Andrew Griffiths whose chamber group with more than its share of youthful talent, offered unobtrusive support and balance. Their soloists stepped out from the ensemble when required with confidence and flair, while the vocal soloists provided the punctuation to the narrative rather than the main thrust.

Most familiar to Yorkshire audiences was soprano Flur Wynn, who regularly appears with Opera North. ably abetted by mezzo soprano Madeleine Shaw, tenor Nick Pritchard and bass-baritone Edward Grint.’

Philip Andrews, Sheffield Telegraph, Tuesday 9 April 2019

Link to the original article in Sheffield Telegraph

Audience comments posted on social media included:

‘Great concert – superb conductor, orchestra, soloists and choir.‘

‘Really enjoyed this evening’s Bach Mass in B minor – lots of hard work clearly went into that.’

‘How amazing was tonight’s concert!’

‘Congratulations on a magnificent and moving concert. I thoroughly enjoyed it!’

‘Fabulous concert this evening…… with a conductor who was clearly enjoying working with the chorus’

‘Well done everyone, I thoroughly enjoyed listening to you last night. You sounded terrific!’

‘So enjoyed last night’s concert. What an amazing performance.’

Chorus hat trick

Julia Armstrong, Sheffield Telegraph, Thursday 13 December 2018

Sheffield Philharmonic Chorus are celebrating a hat-trick by having the third track from their Christmas CD featured on Classic FM, this time a local carol.

The Chorus, once again with the internationally acclaimed Black Dyke Band, is one of five winning entries selected for Classic FM’s popular 5-7pm Drivetime slot by Classic FM and Making Music, the UK’s membership organisation for amateur music groups.

The five winning entries will be played in the week commencing 17 December, one entry per day.

It’s a hat-trick for Sheffield Philharmonic Chorus. Having already had 2 tracks from their Christmas CD featured on Classic FM, this year it’s the turn of a local carol – the title track, Awake, Arise!

“Never heard of our local carols? You’re missing a treat,” quipped Sue Pennington, a singer with the Chorus, resident of Wortley and a long-time advocate of the local carols.

“You’re more likely to hear these songs in our pubs than churches, but we thought it was high time to let the nation in on our secret,” laughed Sue.

Awake, Arise! is a joyous call to arms that contains a unique image – “…The self-same moon was shining that now is in the sky…”, reminding us of the Christian story of the little babe born on this earth, just two thousand years ago.

The Chorus’s festive album includes a selection of carols unique to Sheffield as well as some well-loved Christmas favourites, like O Holy Night.

Paul Henstridge, Chairman and Tenor said “Surprisingly, this is only the second recording we ‘own’, so we’re thrilled to now be sharing a 3rdtrack from it on national radio”.

With over 5 million listeners tuning in each week, Classic FM is sure to bring the track to a wider audience.

“Now, all we need are similar listening figures for our Bach B minor Mass on 6 April, and our performance of Wilby’s Holy Face on 9 June, and we’d be laughing!” said Paul.

Sheffield Philharmonic Chorus’s ‘home’ venue of the City Hall has a capacity of over 2,000 but they are always popular, so whether you prefer Bach with the Royal Northern Sinfonia, or Wilby with the Black Dyke Band, early booking is advised.

And as a special treat from the Chorus and the Band, anyone with a Christmas carol concert ticket who books for the Holy Face by the end of February, can get a £5 discount for the Holy Face concert.

As Paul said: “After all, ‘tis the season of goodwill!”

Julia Armstrong, Sheffield Telegraph, Thursday 13 December 2018

Link to original article

Women centre stage – Sheffield Philharmonic Chorus /Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, City Hall

Philip Andrews, Sheffield Telegraph, March 14, 2019

Sheffield’s ambitious and popular Classical Weekend filled many of the city’s venues with music for three days, this year much of it by women. It was female composers who took centre stage in an eclectic programme of songs from across Europe from our own Philharmonic Chorus on Sunday.

Under conductor Darius Battiwalla they gave sensitive and carefully-balanced accounts of a range of rarely heard pieces, including two by women – Fanny Mendelssohn and Clara Schumann – whose achievements are normally overshadowed by those of their male relatives.

They were joined by soprano Caroline Taylor, who gave impressively clear but delicate interpretations of a trio of reflective songs by the French Boulanger sisters, Lili and Nadia. And it was Lili who was responsible for the most heart-warming contribution to a cold winter Sunday night, her lively Hymne au Soleil.

Appropriately, Friday was International Women’s Day, and the RPO were in town. Although their popular programme was composed entirely by men, it was brought to us by two outstanding female musicians.

Jennifer Pike was the soloist in Mozart’s 3rd Violin Concerto, adding an exquisite delicacy to the composer’s youthful exuberance, to the delight of a packed house. The same qualities were evident in Vaughan Williams The Lark Ascending as she sent the bird soaring noisily aloft, to almost disappear out of earshot.

The other leading lady was diminutive but demonstrative Estonian conductor Anu Tali, who brought out the best from her band.

That they have a whole range of admirable qualities in all departments was evident in a vibrant performance of Elgar’s Enigma Variations which made a very familiar piece sound fresh.

Philip Andrews, Sheffield Telegraph

Link to the review on the Sheffield Telegraph website